These are the kinds of brushes I use....All are small for the most part.
Keep the hairs protected with a plastic cover that usually comes with better brushes.
For doing card model touch-ups use a medium to high quality brush, otherwise you'll spend time picking out the broken brush hair from your model.....
These are 2 styles of paint mixing palette's I use. The one on the left is used for larger quantities of paint and came with the Wilcox course. The one on the left is the one I use 95% of the time. It's the end cap from a mailing tube.
ALWAYS try to mix your color on a white surface, any other color will 'distort' the color to your eyes.